Man sent teenage niece video of him in underpants

By David O’Sullivan

A Dublin man has been handed a fully suspended prison sentence after admitting that he sent his teenage niece a video in which he is wearing nothing but white underpants and showing the outline of his penis.

The 47-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, appeared before Judge Martin Nolan in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday having pleaded guilty to one count of harassment between October 22 and 25, 2021.

An investigating garda told Carol Doherty BL, prosecuting, that Gardaí were called to the girl’s home by her foster mother.

The woman told them she had been checking the girl’s phone when she came across a video sent by the man.

In the video, the man was wearing nothing but white underpants and showing the outline of his penis to the camera.

In subsequent text messages, the man asked the then-12-year-old “Are we still besties?” and said he was showing her “my new jocks”.

Gardaí made contact with the man and asked him to hand over his phone, which he did. In interview, he made full admissions and said “I regret it since. It has ruined my whole life” and that “I would never harm a child.”

He told Gardaí he knew what he did was wrong and that the child was at no fault. He accepted that he was suffering as a result of his own actions.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by the girl’s foster mother,  she said she had looked up to the man as an uncle.

The man “often told her that he loved her and at the time she believed he loved her as an uncle,” the court heard, “She feels stupid now and knows he was looking for a different kind of love.”

The girl said she blames herself for the breakdown of her family situation, and suffers anxiety and panic attacks over this “dreaded moment”.

Michael Bowman SC, defending, said “These are consequences of his own actions, brought on by himself. He has no one to blame but himself.”

He said his client had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and at the time had been drinking heavily and not taking his medication.

Mr Bowman said “he lost his marriage, his employment, his family and ultimately his home” and “has internalized a sense of shame and deep embarrassment that has had a ripple effect across the whole family.”

“His actions are inexcusable and he knows that,” he said, before asking the judge to let his client remain within the community and “build his life back as well as he can.”

The man has no previous convictions.

“For reasons only known to him he decided to send this video to a child,” said the judge in sentencing, before adding that the child had been “stunned” and “traumatised” as a result of the man’s actions.

Judge Nolan considered that the man pleaded guilty, made admissions to Gardaí, is “unlikely to reoffend” and has a work record.

He said “it seems he has some underlying mental health conditions, but they provide no excuse.”

Judge Nolan sentenced the man to 16 months imprisonment suspended on strict conditions.